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3.08.2008

Prakash Raj or Prakash Rai (ప్రకాశ్ రై) born 1957 is a famous actor and producer in the Telugu and Tamil film industries (Tollywood and Kollywood respectively).

Prakash Raj was born and brought up in Dakshina Kannada district in south Karnataka.His mother tongue is Tulu. Now he has shifted his base to Chennai due to numerous offers from Telugu and Tamil films.

He has acted in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Hindi films. His original name 'Prakash Rai' in Kannada screen was rechristened to 'Prakash Raj' by K. Balachander for Prakash Raj's debut movie 'Duet'.

Prakash Raj began his acting career with Kannada DoorDarshan serials like Bisilu Kudure and Guddada Bhootha. He later took up small supporting roles in Kannada films like Raamachari, Nishkarsha, Lockup Death and etc and was noticed for his dialogue delivery and histrionics. His breakthrough role came in form of Harakeya Kuri starring Vishnuvardhan and Geetha, directed by K S L Swamy. His performance in the movie was noticed by Geetha and she in turn introduced him to her mentor, the noted director K. Balachander. Prakash Rai re-entered Kannada films with a bang through Nagamandala in 1997, directed by T.S Naghabarana.

Prakash Raj is a very famous actor in South India for a wide variety of roles he has performed, most notably as a villain and of late, as a character artiste, in Tamil and Telugu. He is considered to be one of the most natural actors in the film industry, and has a good reputation for his acting skills. He was also a part of Mani Ratnam's stage show, Netru, Indru, Naalai.

Prakash Raj has also won several awards including two national awards - One for the 'Best supporting actor' in Iruvar and also a special jury award for his exemplary performance in 'Dhaya' - his first directorial venture.

Though Prakash Raj is purely from Karnataka, he couldn't make it big in Kannada films, owing to lack of support to the new-comers and lack of good-offers. However, he struck gold in Tamil and Telugu film industries.

Recently he took on the mantle of producer and has produced 3 movies in Tamil (Kollywood). Out of the 3 movies he produced 2 are box-office hits and also are critically acclaimed. His movies are generally acclaimed by the audience as good quality movies and are also considered as family entertainers. Also as a producer his selection of movies typically have natural storylines. His movie named Poi (lie in English) which is directed by his mentor and veteran director K. Balachander, who is incidentally directing his 101st film was a non grosser. It has Uday Kiran as hero. Both Director ( K Balachander) and Producer (Prakash Raj) acted in this movie as Good and Bad.

His latest production venture in Tamil Mozhi, directed by Radhamohan, starring himself, Jyothika, Prithviraj and Swarnamalya is a blockbuster. Now he is also very busy as a producer for his 3 forthcoming films with lead actors.